Let's Try This Again
by DrLostSyndrome
Summary: There is a progress inspection happening at the Manebrain Laboratories and when it is Dr. Cloud Tumble's turn to present something horrible happens to his machine. Now winding up alone and confused he must find his way back home, but that might be a bigger problem than he thought. (May turn dark later on so rated T)
1. Chapter 1

"Oh Pegasus feathers, where in the world could he be?" mumbled the young lab assistant as she galloped through the halls of the laboratory in search of her absent professor.

When he did not show up at the appointed time and spot in the lobby she became very worried. Usually she wouldn't, the Doc had been late many times, most of the time because he would lose track of time and get pulled into a project. But today was too important for that.

"I didn't find him at the test chamber so maybe he's in his study?" she thought to herself while rounding a corner and ran straight into another Professor.

"Oof" grunted Razzletwist, lead scientist of the Bio-tech sector, as his papers went flying.

"Goodness me! I'm sorry sir," she exclaimed as she helped retrieve the fallen papers.

"No harm done dear," he said as he straightened the last of the papers. "I'm guessing you're looking for your boss. I saw a light in his study, maybe check there."

"On my way sir, thank you!" she shouted gratefully, continuing down the hall.

Razzletwist shook his head and chuckled, "those two."

She came upon the study and did indeed see light inside so she burst in… and found the Doctor fast asleep, surrounded by mounds of paper in the middle of the room

"Doctor Tumble!"

~pause for character intros~

Dr. Cloud Tumble- Pegasus

Easy-going and very creative but childish

Fav. Food- raspberry anything

Fav. Phrase- "For science" and "Safety's overrated"

Mark- Light bulb, for imagination

Nickname- Doc, The Doctor (not to be mixed up with Doctor Hooves)

He awoke. Blinking awkwardly, and focused on her, then to the clock on the wall.

"Hey Shelly, what are you doing in the lab so late?"

"That's A.M! What are you doing sleeping so late!" she yelled then added, "And don't call me Shelly!"

~another badly placed pause~

Shell Bell- earth pony

Eager to work but slightly clumsy (almost more than Dr. Tumble)

Fav. Food- Celery sticks with honey

Fav. Phrase- "_ of the year" (e.x. you're laziest Doctor of the year)

Mark- Pallet, creativity and art

Nickname- Shelly (but hates it)

"Oh my… I must have dozed off while looking over some theories for new stuff" the doctor pondered.

"Do you realize what day it is Doc?" Shell Bell inquired.

"Umm… Tuesday?"

She face-hoofed, "No. it's the annual examination! Representatives from Canterlot Central will be here and everything!"

"Do you think I should clean my desk then?" he smirked.

She looked at him with a stern gaze, "how can you be so calm?"

"Easy, all the inventions are ready for presentation. And I just finished the big theory paper we were working on. You worry too much Shell" he said as he patted her on the head.

Shell Bell sighed in frustration. "Never mind, I'm not going to argue. Let's just go down to the lobby and wait."

"Awe," Tumble frowned. "I want to get some breakfast."

Shell Bell closed her eyes in exasperation. "Fine!"

Many of the heads of the different labs stood around waiting in the lobby, anxious to welcome the guests when Cloud Tumble and Shell Bell joined the crowd.

"Glad to see you decided to join us Doc," Song Blitz said sarcastically.

Cloud Tumble stuck his chin up and replied, "I was enjoying my breakfast, thank you very much."

"Well are you ready for the big day?" he asked as he trotted over.

"Yup yup," Cloud Tumble replied. "How many presentations do you have for today?"

"Just the one," Song Blitz replied, "But it's a big one. He gave a big smile and said, "My crew and I have been building better speaker systems to be put up all around Equestria. With the new speakers announcements can be spread to every town and back! Not to mention the townsfolk can use them to talk to HQ in case of emergencies."

"Impressive," said Cloud Tumble with a low whistle.

"What about you, did you even finish anything?" snickered Song Blitz.

"Yes I did!" he pouted, "I have three in fact! I made…"

"Sir no!" Shell Bell cut in.

"Awe c'mon buddy," Song Blitz said as he put a hoof around the doctor's neck.

"Humph! well I did make something that's much cooler than yours," Cloud Tumble stated. " But keep it a secret," he whispered, looking around to see if any other pony was eavesdropping, "I made a teleporter that doesn't require magic!"

"What! No way! you're lying to me," he exclaimed, "I don't believe it."

"I also built a,"

"Dr. Tumble enough!" Interjected Shell Bell again. "Here, let's go get something to drink."

**"Okie dokie," the doctor said in a sing-song voice. And the left their fellow scientist standing in shock.**


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note- (oh boy, chapter two! :D again, I do not own MLP or any characters but my own. Enjoy~)

"You shouldn't be telling people what you made before you present, I thought you wanted it kept a secret," Shell scolded.

"Yeah but he's a jerk so I felt the need to one-up him," the doctor laughed.

"It will be fine, I only wanted to tell him but everypony else will still be surprised. Now let's get ready, they should be here any minute."

As everypony stood in line mumbling to each other, Tumble and Shell stepped into their place in line. No sooner had they done this than the sound of the arriving representatives could be heard outside. Everypony stopped chatting and quickly straightened up, eager to impress.

"And here we are mares and gentlecolts, Manebrain Laboratories," announced their director, Professor Technia, as she guided the ponies inside.

Each rep. walked in looking around impressed. There was one from Canterlot, Fillydelphia, Manehattan, Cloudsdale and, everypony gasped.

"Princess Celestia!" They all immediately bowed to the Princess.

She laughed and said, "I thought I should stop and see what our best science facility had to offer today." She smiled and fell in line with the rest of the representatives.

"Well now that everypony is here why don't we have the section leaders head back to their labs and we'll stop by each one to see your presentations," ordered Technia. " I think we will start with the biological science sector, follow me please."

As everypony trotted off to their designated wings, Shell Bell whispered to Dr. Tumble, "Can you believe it? The Princess is here!"

"I know! Hey maybe slip her one of your doodles, I know she'd love it Shelly," he winked.

She blushed and stuttered " D-don't you dare show here anything, I would be so embarrassed."

They walked into their lab and the doctor flew up to straighten the cloth of one of the projects as Shell Bell closed the door behind them. As they tried to kill time Shell Bell had Cloud Tumble recite his speeches for each of the projects, making sure he got each exactly right. This was very important since they would be presenting to royalty now.

"That should do it," she said as she straightened the notes and put them in his pocket.

While she was turned away Cloud Tumble smiled and reached into his desk and quietly pulled out a drawing Shell had given him a while back as a gift. He really thought her art skills were underappreciated and that maybe he could help her along. Plus he wanted to see her blush, so he slipped it into his pocket for when the group arrived.

As he stepped away from the desk, he heard Shell Bell exclaim, "I think they are coming!"

The group walked in along with a few other scientists that had already been reviewed, including Songblitz.

"Bleah," Cloud Tumble thought as he saw him walk in but he stepped toward the group to address them.

"Hey there! Thanks for stopping by," he said cheerfully.

"Everypony, the is one of our independent experimental lab workers; Cloud Tumble," introduced Technia.

"That's just the fancy way of saying we make the random stuff," said Cloud Tumble with a laugh.

"I like the layout of this lab," said the pony from Manehattan.

"Thank you," the doctor said as he gestured to different parts of the room. "Over here we have the test floor and workshop," next he pointed toward a bunch of stocked shelves. "Over here is where most of our prototypes and theory papers are stored, over where Songblitz is standing is our power conduit. That machine right there can produce enough power to charge Ponyville and Canterlot for a year. And here by my desk I keep my medical supplies since I do dabble a bit in the medical science."

As they were looking looking around, Dr. Tumble slipped the drawing on the table and it was not long before somepony noticed it.

"Oh! who took this photograph?" a rep. asked.

Cloud Tumble was certain he heard a faint squeak from behind the crowd as he commented, "That's not a photo, it's a drawing!"

Everypony muttered in amazement, including Princess Celestia.

"Yup," said Cloud Tumble proudly. "Drawn by none other than my lovely assistant Shell Bell."

The small group parted to look at the pony being mentioned and Shell Bell blushed bright red.

"You are quite talented," remarked Celestia. " If you are willing I would love to have some of your art at the palace, the detail is amazing."

She managed to turn even brighter red, "y-you would? Of course m'lady, I would love to draw something for you!"

With all the commotion about the artwork Technia started calling everypony's attention back to the presentation. Shell Bell shot a look at Cloud Tumble that obviously said, "you did that on purpose didn't you?" He smiled at her and she gave him a look of gratitude mixed with embarrassment.

"Now why don't you show us some of your projects," Technia asked.

"Certainly," he beamed as he flew over to the first covered pedestal.


	3. Chapter 3

(wow that must have been the longest wait between chapters EVER! Anyway, here it is~ chapter 3)

"This, ladies and gentlecolts, is my first creation." He pulled the fabric away to reveal a couple earbuds. "This is a neuropathic earpiece. Instead of having to send messages throughout say, guards at the castle, these will create a mental link between the designated devices so you can converse mentally."

The representatives nodded in approval and some muttered to each other, impressed. There was a snort back where Songblitz was standing but the doctor decided to ignore him.

"The next piece I would like to show you," continued Cloud Tumble, "is this medication we call Lovair." He held up a few blue pills for everypony to see. " We stumbled upon a unique biological and chemical reaction that, once harnessed, will actually fight and block the common cold. Healing ponies much faster than any other medicine on the market."

"That's wonderful!" said one of the reps. And all the other ponies nodded and chattered with agreement, some even scribbled on their clipboards.

"Unfortunately it's still a work in progress and only affects earth ponies, but we plan to work with it until it is effective for every race in Equestria."

"Well why won't it work on pegasi and unicorns too, huh...?" Songblitz asked rudely.

Cloud Tumble didn't miss a beat and he continued, "that is because the medicine works at the very core of your cells, the DNA. And even a pony such as yourself should know that even though DNA is different for all creatures the gene-strands can be similar. An earth pony is still closer in genes than those of a pegasus or unicorn." A few ponies snickered as Cloud Tumble finished, "all we need is a little more time to tweak the medical enzymes so that it can be dispersed to the world," with that he flew up to the final cloth covering.

"And this everypony, is our greatest creation." He flew up and yanked the covering off the object in the corner to reveal fairly large twin cylinders held up by black mechanical tubes worming their way in and out of every piece of the tower. In between the two was a platform to stand on with a round object above it that was slowly gyrating even though it was not in use. Trailing off it was a large power cord that lead to the giant power conductor that a few of the representatives were standing by . "A non-magical teleporter!" he said with a grin.

With this many of the ponies actually "ooh"ed and "aah"ed as Cloud Tumble flew back to the ground. Looking around Cloud Tumble noticed that Songblitz was no longer in the lab, "Must have been so jealous that he left," he thought to himself.

"This truly is remarkable Doctor," commented the princess. "Please explain to us how your machine works."

"If you will look behind you my assistant is next to the corresponding machine." They all turned around as Shell Bell tugged the cloth off an identical teleport. "By stepping on one of these platforms you can type into the console where you wish to go and the transportation will activate automatically. The atomizer on the top will break down your molecules and send them through a subspace network that connects the machines and safely transport you to the corresponding teleport."

"But is it really safe?" came the voice of Songblitz.

Cloud Tumble frowned, it appeared that he had not left but simply went out to grab a glass of water which he sipped at with a smirk.

"Of course it is. I tested it this morning and only lost half of my digestive track, a huge improvement from last time!'

The ponies started to shuffle around nervously and look at each other in fear, mumbling about how that didn't sound very "safe".

Cloud Tumble gave them a huge smile and said, "gotcha! only joking. I'm perfectly fine."

Uneasy giggles ran through the crowd as he looked around. "To put you at ease I will even give a demonstration of its power!"

With everypony's eyes on Cloud Tumble as he walked up to the platform none of them noticed Songblitz give a shifty smile and 'accidently' spill his water on the power conduit. "Oops," he muttered quietly and he stood back so no pony would see his little handiwork.

As Cloud Tumble stepped up to the command console he addressed his crowd again, "after the flash of bright light be sure to bring your attention to the other, soon to be occupied, teleporter as I demonstrate the first pegasus to ever teleport on his own!" Guard rails slid up as he nodded for Shell Bell to flip the power switch. The teleport started to hum and power could be seen running through the countless cords as the atomizer started to gyrate. He started typing in the destination and looked at Shell Bell with a smile, "See ya in a sec. Shelly," and he hit the enter button.

There was an explosion of sparks from the main power tower as the transport activated. A few of the ponies looked at each other as the hum rose to a dangerous buzz.

"Is that suppose to happen?"

"Is he alright?"

With the machine already activated the doctor was frozen in place so it looked like he didn't even know it was happening. Then there was a bright red flash, a scream of pain, and he was gone. They all looked over to the other machine and stood in worried awe, but he did not appear. The ponies started to panic and Shell Bell walked over to the machine, looking around it and whimpering. She made a full circle around it and looked at the crowd with tear filled eyes, "that's not right! This never happened during testing, the flash was suppose to yellow not red. What happened to Dr. Tumble?" asked one of the ponies.

She looked at the ground and started crying, "What happened to my doctor…"

(dun dun duuuunnn! I wonder what's going to happen next? Oh wait, I do :P I will try and get the next chapter up much sooner than this one... I promise!)


	4. Chapter 4

CH4

"Ohh that feels odd," murmured Cloud Tumble as his vision swam and his stomach started tying knots. "Shell Bell remind me to check the speed of the particle accelerator, it's making me feel a bit sick, oof!" Cloud Tumble fell as soon as he tried to take a step. He decided to just lay there until his vision cleared and he could pick himself up off the dirt. Wait, dirt? This little detail forced his vision back to normal and he stood up,eerie trees, grass, and a small path leading off into the distance were all he could see. Where am I? Where did my lab go?" he asked as he backed into a tree in fear and tried to look for some other sign of life around him. "Shell Bell, Celestia, is anypony there?" Tears started welling up in his eyes as he crumpled to the ground as his only answer was the whispering wind, "I-I'm completely lost! I have no idea where I am, I could be halfway across Equestria for all I know."

He sniffled and wiped his eyes dry before standing and sticking his chin up, "no! I have to stay strong and think about this. I'll just, umm, follow this path until I find civilization. I can't be that far away from somewhere, and I'll contact Manebrain labs to send for me. Then I will apologize for the mistake and prove that I can fix it!"

He looked above the treeline and saw smoke rising from the forest but that was just heading deeper so he did not want to follow that so he looked the other direction and saw some movement from far off, it looked almost like a flag. "Ah ha, civilization!" and he started trotting down the trail.

After walking quite some distance he pushed through some brush and came into a clearing. Looking around he tried to identify the small town that lay before him. "Hmm, that sign says this is Ponyville, but I thought there was suppose to be a giant astronomy tower built here," he said looking around but not finding any building taller than the clock tower.

He walked into town and his worry slightly faded by seeing all the ponies going about their daily lives, for such a small town it sure had a lot of ponies! He saw one putting out freshly made bread on the windowsill of a bakery. There was another couple pegasi putting up a poster of some kind for a concert, and even more tidying up their shops. There were little fillies running around, and pegasi flying over the skies toward different destinations. Coming to a gap between houses he saw even more ponies shopping in a market!

"I must have come during rush hour," he thought.

There was an enormous variety of stands in the market; fruits, alfalfa, cookies, pastries, craft supplies and some beautiful flowers. There was a friendly looking cowgirl at an apple stand and he was thinking of asking her for directions (and perhaps buy a few apples) when a pony with a wild brown mane went whizzing by, followed by a grey colored one with odd eyes ran by him.

"I wonder where they're off too?" Cloud Tumble pondered, completely distracted. "Well maybe they have a mayor or somepony running this place," and he trotted off to look for the pony in charge.

As he walked along he passed by many cozy-looking houses lining the street and was very happy to see a few residents actually wave at him in greeting. Just over the line of houses Cloud Tumble saw what looked like a town hall and decided to check there. Walking up he saw a grey haired mare with glasses giving orders to a young pony before she sent her off on her task. "Maybe she can help me," he thought to himself. "Excuse me miss," Cloud Tumble said to get her attention.

"Yes, can I help you?" she asked.

""Is this Ponyville, if so can is there a way I can get a message to Princess Celestia?" he questioned.

She gave him a bright smile and said, "ah, you must be a visitor to our humble town. To answer your question this is Ponyville, I am actually the mayor here, but when it comes to interaction with the princess you would have to talk to Twilight Sparkle."

"Where can I find her?"

The mayor turned and pointed a hoof toward a giant tree with a building in it. "That is the town library where Twilight lives and works."

"Thanks," he said with a smile and started toward the library and waved a farewell to the mayor as she got back to work.

Standing outside the library Cloud Tumble could see that it was a fairly large house, he gave a couple knocks and waited until a small purple dragon answered the door.

"Hello?" the dragon said.

"Umm, are you Twilight Sparkle?" Cloud Tumble asked quizzically.

The dragon burst out laughing, "no, no she's upstairs. My name is spike, and you are?"

"Just a pony with some questions," Tumble said with a smile.

"Uh ok then, well come on in. I'll go get her," Spike replied and ran upstairs.

Cloud Tumble walked in and was taken aback by the enormous amount of books fit in the room, it was amazing! He was so distracted by the sheer number of books that he didn't even hear as somepony came downstairs.

"Why hello there," came a voice from behind him. He turned around to see a friendly looking purple unicorn at the bottom of the stairs. "Spike says you were looking for me?"

He looked at her puzzled for a second, "Why does she look so familiar?" he thought before speaking to her. "Yes, I was told you have close contact with Princess Celestia, I am Dr. Cloud Tumble from Manebrain Laboratories. I need to tell her that my machine did not kill me."

She looked at him with confusion and worry before replying, "What is Mainbrain, and dare I ask what machine?"

He gave a short sigh and said, "I work at the science lab on the east side of Equestria, we had a bunch of representatives, including Celestia, come to review our progress and when I was presenting one of my machines it teleported me to the woods outside your town." He looked at her in puzzlement, "how could you not know about Manebrain, we've provided so much technology and products for everypony in equestria!" he explained.

"That's odd, if anypony would have heard of it I would be one of them. And we have not been sent any products from there." She started pacing and talking to herself fairly loudly, "And I think Princess Celestia would have sent me a letter if she was going to some sort of important presentation today…"

"Yeah I haven't been sent anything," interjected Spike.

With this Twilight got right up in his face and started looking him over, "maybe he's one of the few ponies still being affected by Discord's magic?" she questioned, scratching her chin.

Cloud Tumble backed up and his eyes grew to the size of saucers, "wait, you're THAT Twilight? The one who had the Elements of Harmony? You were really one of the ponies that stopped Discord?" he threw the questions at her as he looked for something at her sides but seeing nothing he looked back at her and started shaking slightly.

"Yes, we used the Elements of Harmony to stop him a couple days ago… why?" she asked, obviously confused by his actions.

His eyes started to tear up again and his entire body crumpled against the wall as he slid to the floor in horror and he choked out, " That happened five years ago…"


	5. Chapter 5

(Author's Note: well, well, well, here we are again, and with a new chapter to boot! Hope you guys enjoy it all so far!)

Twilight led him to a seat as Spike went to go make some tea. "Are you sure you are all right?" she asked, "what you are saying doesn't make any sense.

Cloud took a few deep breaths and replied, "yes I am, no I am not under Discords spell, and yes I am from the future… I think."

"Whoa that's so cool!" said Spike as he came back with drinks.

"Not helping Spike," Twilight said through strained teeth.

"Oh come on Twilight, how cool is it to have somepony visit us from the future! I bet he can tell us about all the awesome things that we will have, like flying carts, or houses with personal force fields, or even," Spike gasped, "robots!"

"Spike that is enough! He's shaken up as it is, for all we know he might not have even been meant to come here," Twilight scolded.

"She's right," Cloud Tumble said in a shaky voice. "I don't understand how it even happened. I tested my machine this morning and it worked perfectly fine, somepony must have tampered with my machine during the presentation because I was only suppose to be teleported across the room not across time. Now I really have no clue how to get back, I bet Shell is worried sick," Cloud gave a small sniffle, "oh Shelly."

Twilight put a hoof around him and said, "oh don't worry, maybe we can help get you back in some way. I could message the princess and see if she has any idea on how to get you back to your time."

"Well since this is the past that might not be the best idea right now," he answered.

"Wait, I'm still confused, what happened exactly?" Spike asked.

Cloud looked over at Spike and summarized, "I was showing off a teleporter at the lab I work at, but when I landed I was in the forest outside of town and outside my time."

"Y-you woke up in the Everfree forest!" Spike exclaimed. "Did you see any monsters when you were there?"

Cloud Tumble looked at him curiously, "no, but I did see some smoke coming from the trees. Does a monster live in a house back there?

Spike let out a sigh and said, "oh that must have been Zecora's hut. She is one of the few ponies brave enough to live in the forest.

Cloud Tumble looked back at Twilight, " you have a pony living in the forest?"

"Well zeebra to be precise, but yes she prefers the solitude of the forest over the hustle and bustle of the town."

"Hey! I just remembered something Twilight," Spike exclaimed.

She turned to him, "What is it Spike?"

He walked over to the window and said, "Isn't there a pony in town who claims to travel in time? why not ask him if he can help?"

Cloud Tumbles eyes perked up and Twilight smiled, "I think there is Spike! Why don't we all go look for him since I hear he is always on the move."

As they walked through the busy streets Twilight kept an eye out for the pony in question with Cloud and Spike trailing behind. Since he did not get out of the lab much Cloud Tumble was trying to take in as many sights as possible while here and Spike was continuously asking him questions about the future.

"So are there robots and androids and stuff in the future?"

"Not as many as you think. Yeah we have a few robots that help with building and maintenance but they are not produced on a wide scale. If we had robots doing everything for everypony in Equestria we would all be very lazy and dependant on help from the robots."

"Awe man, that's no fun," sighed Spike.

"The board of Grandeur actually banned the use of intelligent robots in several towns," Cloud Tumble continued.

"The board of what?" asked Spike.

"They are…"

"I see him!" exclaimed Twilight. "Excuse me sir!" she called out.

Cloud Tumble looked ahead to see that same brown pony that ran by him in the market turn toward them as Twilight ran up.

"You are The Doctor ,right?" she asked.

"Yes I am miss, what do you need?"

"We were wondering if you had a minute to talk."

"We?" he asked.

Cloud Tumble walked up and The Doctor looked at him in alarm. "What's wrong?" asked Cloud in confusion.

"You have, umm," He looked at Twilight and spoke to her, "how about we go somewhere a little less crowded."

"This is much better," The Doctor said as they were led to their table at the cafe. "So you are having a little time problem I'm guessing."

"How did you know that?" asked Twilight.

"Your friend here is swarmed with left over future-matter," he pointed to Cloud Tumble, "I can still see the particles around him."

"What? I don't see anything," Cloud said as he started rubbing at his skin.

"Well of course, if you traveled as much as me you would be able to see them better, but what I don't understand is how you actually moved through time. I thought I was the only one with a machine that could do that."

"You can travel in time?" asked Cloud Tumble.

"It was hard for us to believe at first too, but it is true," Twilight commented.

"My question is how did you end up here?" The Doctor asked.

Cloud Tumble started recounting his story as their drinks arrived, and Twilight shooed the waiter away as he started to look at them weird as the story progressed.

"And that's how I ended up here," he finished.

The Doctor let out a long whistle and said, " Well that is a doozy, but it does sound like honest time travel. You say the light was a different color when you started to move?"

"Yeah, it was suppose to be yellow but instead the entire room flashed red."

The Doctor nodded, "well you went through the time vortex unprotected. I am surprised you are alive at all, the chances of surviving a trip like that are ten trillion to one."

Cloud Tumble paled, " well that's reassuring."

"Does this mean you can send him back?" Twilight asked.

The Doctor scratched his chin, "Yes, and no."

"What do you mean," exclaimed Spike.

The Doctor took a sip of his drink before continuing. " It is quite possible for us to work together to build a new machine to send him home but we can't."

There was dead silence at the table as the crew stared at The Doctor. "What exactly do you mean by that?" Tumble asked.

"Well time is a very confusing and twisted path to travel, I of all people should know, and if we were to build a time machine now instead of later on when you built yours it could throw the entire natural order off balance. I'm sorry but I can't think of a way to get you back without destroying everything we know," he gave a small frown and the table was left in silence again.

"But didn't you come here in a time machine?" Twilight asked.

The Doctor held up a hoof, "yes I did but she couldn't remain stable here and is dead at the moment and I am stuck here. I experienced this once before where I fell into a parallel world and since my TARDIS couldn't survive there and it died."

"So you can travel to different worlds?" Cloud Tumble asked.

" actually I'm from a different dimension entirely, I was actually humanoid before I landed here."

"Wait," Tumble perked up. "My machine wasn't meant to be a time travel device at all! it was just a simple teleporter, does that affect the outcome of time if we do build a separate device?"

"That sounds like it would work wouldn't it Doctor?" Spike chimed in.

He hung his head a bit and replied, "no, for all we know you could be the first inventor of a time travel device and that specific point in time could be when this world is ready for that technology. If it is introduced to this world before it's ready it would be complete and utter chaos."

"Well I know somepony who would enjoy that very much," muttered Twilight.

"So I'm completely stuck here?" Tumble moaned.

"Afraid so," The Doctor replied. " But at least it was only five years. You can't change that much in five years and when the time comes you can just jump back in and continue life as normal."

"That is one perk, I guess," Tumble nodded.

"Didn't you say you were a scientist?" Twilight questioned.

"Yes?"

"Well then can't he use his time here to keep inventing new things and just keep them to himself until his time is up? This could actually be a great time for him to improve his work as the time goes by."

The Doctor scratched his chin, "I don't see why not, as long as he doesn't go too big and doesn't start mass producing." He held up a hoof, "and in case something does slip out it should be ok if a few ponies here see his inventions, but not too many."

A smile started to form on Cloud Tumble's face. " Get back to inventing? Yeah I think I could handle that," and he took the final sip of his tea.


End file.
